


Wonderful Life

by haeym



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe, First Kiss, M/M, Song Lyrics, Song fic, Strangers, implied/referenced suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-04
Updated: 2013-12-04
Packaged: 2018-08-27 19:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8414302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haeym/pseuds/haeym
Summary: Don't let go.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the song [Wonderful Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TB1x67Do5U) by Hurts.

Changmin walks. He wanders aimlessly, just because he feels like doing so. He likes to watch the people pass by and him passing by them. He likes to watch how the cars go past him, moving with a speed faster than his legs can muster. He walks slow and he walks fast, strides long and steps light. Sometimes he runs until his feet are sore and muscles exhausted.

Changmin walks at night. When the city sleeps and when the city buzzes and the lights flicker and flash. The shadows dance on his high cheekbones whenever he goes past a lamp post, a bar sign or a commercial screen. The bits of the lights, the descendants of stars, adorn his eyelashes, they drop onto his cheeks and light up his lips. They drown in the messy mane of his dark locks.

Changmin likes to watch when the city sleeps in a cradle of neon.

* * *

One cold night in Seoul, Changmin meets Yunho.

One of his favorite places to walk to is the Gwangjin bridge. Yunho stands on the Gwangjin bridge. Not in the middle, not in either of the ends. Just past the fourth of the bridge from Cheonho-dong's side. Changmin notices the him standing there when he starts to cross the bridge, the distance long enough to render the figure barely recognizable. The clear night sky upon them shows no lights like always, only lonely streetlights and reflections from the water lighting the path.

Changmin hears the river flow, the gentle breeze of the night ruffling his hair. The man in the distance doesn't move, he just stands close to the rail, hands curled into loose fists, hanging on his sides. He stares into the water, as if it were the infinity.

Changmin slows his pace down but doesn't stop. He never stops. A weird sense of numbness invades him and he tries not to stare as he gets closer. He looks sad, his features blank and clothes dark as the night. Yet, Changmin feels weirdly compelled by this stranger, as if he had seen him before, met him before. His lips are full and his face has a certain sense of grace. He is beautiful, his looks made of contradictions.

When Changmin passes him he notices the man is almost as tall as he is.

Feeling intimidated, Changmin walks away, step muted by the worn surface of the bridge.

* * *

The next day Changmin walks to the Gwangjin bridge, in pouring rain and sneakers sloshing with water. His hair curls around his face, like a crown of dead branches, and his hands are cold. The reflection on the water is fractured into a mosaic of red and orange and blue. The hues blend and the man from yesterday stands there again, clothes dripping wet, shoulders slumped.

* * *

Changmin doesn't walk to the Gwangjin bridge the day after that. He wanders aimlessly around Hongdae but his mind is somewhere else.

When he gets home around 4 in the morning, he is sick with emotions, mind muddled by thoughts, his chest pained with worry. And he hopes, oh, he hopes, that tomorrow is not too late. He barely sleeps, waking up every now and then, until it's 8 in the morning and he heads for work.

* * *

A threat of rain hangs in the air when Changmin parks his car at the South end of the Gwangjin bridge that night. His car clock flashes 23:53 before he kills the engine and steps out. Tonight the lights are pretty and the reflections clear. Tonight, Changmin thinks.

He sucks in his lower lip, worries it with a perfect row of round teeth and steps forward. 00:09 Changmin steps on the Gwangjin bridge and hears his pace echoing in the structures. The muted sound of the water greets him, condensation pearling on his jacket. His eyes betray him and he searches for the figure on the bridge.

And there the man stands as the river rushes by underneath.

The amount of beauty, grace, sadness and hurt mixing in him is disgusting, yet so compelling. As Changmin gets closer he sees how the man’s gaze moves, zooms in and out the water, how his nostrils flare as he breathes in the cold air. Changmin opens his mouth to say something to the man standing there like a statue, carved out of the finest marble, eyes as black as the water under them.

When he speaks up, the man answers. His voice deep and rich but at the same time quiet and ready to shatter. His voice vibrates same way the water when it meets the banks of the river, and Changmin knows the man in front of him is broken.

Looking absolutely beaten, ready to collapse to the ground and the beg mercy from the heavens, he tells Changmin he had run into some trouble and he doesn't really want the company.

But when the last syllable leaves those full lips and a silence follows, he looks up to Changmin, eyes burning with things untold, and he seems to understand.

And as Changmin takes his hand, cold fingers curling around something even colder, Changmin understands as well.

* * *

It starts to rain when they reach the South end and Changmin wonders if the droplets on the man's face are salty like tears or bland like rain.

* * *

Tucked in the front seat, the man next to him agrees to his offer to take him home. He tells Changmin his name, Jung Yunho, and he tells Changmin to drive to the Seoul Station, he tells him he's going to see his parents in Gwangju and stay there for some time. Changmin grips the steering wheel, the leather pliant under his damp palms. The rain pats his car, sliding its wet fingers down the windows.

They drive, lights of the city flashing around them way faster than Changmin wants them to. The neon signs tell him where to go, that he can't stop as the city gets more and more quiet. The man next to him is silent as well, but from the corner of his eye Changmin can see that there are hot, angry tears sliding down his cheeks. A very subtle scar on the right side of his face marks his face.

The lights dance on his features in a very different manner than they do on Changmin's.

The man next to him, Yunho, the man with delicate features and strong presence, expression fierce and hands curling into fists in his laps, bleeds miserable emotions as the world has gotten him down on his knees.

* * *

When they arrive at the station, the clock in Changmin's car flashes 02:57.

When they get out of the car, Changmin's features are set with determination.

He takes Yunho's arm, looking him with eyes wide with emotion and throws him at the wall and kisses him on the lips. He closes his eyes, mouth insistent on Yunho's and he feels how the man against his gasps before his mouth softens and he kisses Changmin back with faint strength.

And as they part, Yunho rises from his pit, lifting from the ground. He looks up to meet Changmin's eyes, gaze burning fiercely and eyes lit up. He pulls Changmin back in his arms, fingers pressing into the taller man's arms, pulls him close enough to kiss him again, only an inch between their lips. Changmin feels Yunho’s hot breath against his face. He lifts his gaze from those luscious lips, marvelling the slope of his nose and finally looking the shorter man in the eye. He fixates his gaze, eyes dark in the shadow of the station and heart about to burst. With a solemn look on his face he whispers against those lips, those perfect lips, previous marred with sorrow -

‘Don't let go,  
never give up,  
it's such a wonderful life.’

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally posted on 4/12/2013 on Livejournal.  
> This version of it has been edited for AO3 in 2016.


End file.
